Food consultant says supermarket code won't work

A food industry consultant has questioned the effectiveness of a code of conduct for supermarkets.

Both major parties have said they would consider enforcing a mandatory code to ensure fair dealings between supermarkets and their suppliers.

Federal Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says Labor would appoint an independent mediator to help finalise a Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, if re-elected.

And he says if the mediator makes no further progress, he'd enforce a mandatory code.

The Coalition has also signalled it would consider a mandatory code.

But food industry consultant David McKinna says the code won't work, because the supermarkets have too much power.

"The damage has been done ten years ago when Coles and Woolworths were allowed to get as big as they have, and it's pretty hard to unravel that and I don't think any government in the world is going to break up Coles and Woolworths. It's politically not acceptable.

"Basically, consumers are getting a pretty good deal out of supermarkets, so politically it doesn't make a lot of sense to do that."

Mr McKinna says a code would be difficult to enforce and the penalties would not be hefty enough to have any impact.

He says the code would rely on suppliers dobbing in the supermarkets, which is unlikely to happen.

"If you've got a business where, say, 60 per cent of your business is with a major supermarket, are you going to dob in your best customer and take a risk on that on the basis that you might get some protection?